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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

So I figured I should finally post about my mom's trip to England before Ryan's mom, Susan, gets here tomorrow! I mean it's only been about two months since she visited! Ooops!

She arrived May 31st (which is the reason we are still in jackets!). We immediately showed her around Leamington Spa and took her to our favorite park.

Maggie loves watching the birds.

This was also the day we told her that she was going to be a Nana for the second time. ;)

Ryan & I had been wanting to eat at this local restaurant that you could walk through a field to get to. It's been so fun discovering these little gems in England. It was fun checking out new places with my mom.

It's a nice pub (The Saxon Mill) that sits along the river that used to be an old mill. It's so quaint and in the prettiest setting.

We also took Nana to the Cotswolds. It's an area of England that is known for it's charming, quaint towns, rich history and rolling hills. This is the Saxon tower built in 1794 located in Broadway.

Beautiful views.

Had to visit our favorite Tea Room for Nana's first official English tea.

And of course our favorite local pub.

We explored the castle ruins in Kenilworth that is just up the road from us. (I swear there is a castle every few miles here! Ha!)

Took Nana to Maggie's Monkey Music class and Toddler Sensory.

And of course had to show her our favorite castle of all, Warwick Castle!! This is where I hauled Maggie up a million tiny stairs to the top of the tower. Whew!

Then we took a trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon which is about 10 minutes from us to show Nana the birthplace and resting place of Shakespeare. Maggie & I are sitting in front of the church where he is buried.

Stratford is still one of my favorite towns. We always love visiting there.

Can you tell we jam-packed Nana's trip the whole time she was here?? This was the first time she had ever been to England (or the UK) so I felt it was my duty to try and fit everything in. ;) I still have so much to share from her time here. Stay tuned!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Thank you guys so much for all your well wishes! We are pretty excited and things are starting to feel real around here. Lots of planning ahead of us and getting ready for another little baby. When I was pregnant with Maggie I did weekly updates on the bump, but I know already there is no way I can keep up with that this time around. I thought monthly updates would be manageable but I am already behind on that! Geez!

I found out pretty early on that I was preggo but didn't get around to taking the "first" picture until about 6 weeks (which I was already starting to show!).

This was taken at 13 weeks 3 days. Definitely looking a little rounder these days. :)

This is my comparison photo from last time, and I can already tell I'm showing a lot faster this time. I think it would be fun to show these comparisons to see how different or similar the pregnancies are going forward.

How far along: 13 weeks (will be 14 weeks tomorrow)

Size of Baby: 3.4 in & 1.5 oz

Fruit/vegetable comparison: Lemon

Total weight gain: I need to weight myself again, but I think I'm still down 4 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Sleep: Not too bad yet! Just having to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Unglamorous body changes: Still feeling sick from time to time but definitely happening less and less. My pregnancy hormones feel like they are in overdrive! I cry so easily. This week I finally watched the final episode of How I Met Your Mother and balled like a baby. My husband thought something was wrong with me. I also happened to catch a rerun of the final episode of FRIENDS and cried again! Poor hubby.

Maternity Clothes? Sadly, I did not bring any maternity (or baby!) clothes with us when we moved to England. So I've slowly started purchasing some here and there. I've definitely needed to rock some maternity pants as of late if I'm not in sweats. ;)

Showing: I think so! I forgot how unflattering this stage can be when you just look pudgy. No one really knows you're pregnant by just looking at you and are too afraid to ask. Ha!

Food cravings: I was craving mac & cheese until I got sick on it the other night. No more of that! I've also been wanting pop tarts. But more than anything, nothing sounds good!! This does not make the hubby happy when I never know what I want to fix for dinner.

What I miss: Having more energy and an appetite.

Best moment this week: I made my first purchase for this baby, a new baby carrier. I sort of mentioned early, but we didn't know we were going to having a baby over here and did not bring ANY baby items with us that Maggie grew out of. This means we are going to have to repurchase a lot of stuff like a swing, rock n' play, bathtub, bottles, clothes, etc. The upside is I get to go shopping. ;)

Looking forward to: Finding out what we are having in just a couple of weeks! We scheduled an early ultrasound while Ryan's mom is visiting us so she could join in on the fun. Care to venture a guess??

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

So sorry I have been MIA lately. This pregnancy has definitely been more difficult for me. With Maggie I didn't even feel pregnant other than being a little tired. This time I have been sick a hand full of times and easily gag on food. Nothing sounds good! I've actually lost around 5 pounds so far but now that I'm starting the second trimester I know the pounds will be adding on quickly. ;) I am starting to feel better which is great! Plus, I'm definitely showing!!

We are so excited that Maggie is going to have either a little brother or sister. She is going to make the best big sister. Right now she is obsessed with babies and has to point every single one out. Even kids that are older than her are "babies!".

So I know you guys want to hear the back story to this, especially given our history. (I know I always do!). Having another baby wasn't really on my radar as I was still feeling overwhelmed especially after moving to England in January with a 9 month old! A baby is no joke! But Ryan had been asking me since Maggie was 6 months old when I wanted another one. Ha! He was ready whenever I was. Oh honey... I wasn't even sure if we would have a baby while we were in England because we didn't have anyone here to help us.

Then, as Maggie's first birthday approached and close friends & family started to announce their pregnancies I could feel a twinge creeping up on me. A "maybe I do want another baby soon" kind of twinge. But as soon as I admitted it to myself, the fear crept in that it may be another hard road. So I starting praying for peace and his control over the timing of possibly adding to our family. Of course I was still anxious and trying to figure out if I was even having cycles again. They were still pretty irregular and months apart. I figured that we would have to go down the fertility route again. I didn't want to rush into anything, but I did want to figure out the system in England. I had heard that there could be a really long wait to see a specialist. It's that constant struggle of, "Am I trusting God if I move forward with seeing a doctor? Or do I need to be patient?".

I went ahead a scheduled an appointment with a private care doctor just so I could ask questions but not necessarily start any medication. The day before the appointment I saw two rainbows after a storm. I couldn't remember the last time I saw one let alone two rainbows! I took it as a sign of peace from God. The next day I woke up and decided to take a pregnancy test before the appointment. Low and behold, it said I was pregnant!!! (The same thing happened to me last time!) To say I was in complete shock would be an understatement of a life time. PRAISE THE LORD!! Even with irregular cycles, my fears and doubts, the Lord worked through all of that to show me his wonder! I still can't believe it.

So now to the story of how I told Ryan! ;) He just so happened to text me to see if I wanted to grab some lunch that day (which never happens). So I knew that would be my opportunity to surprise him. I took this picture right before I left.

When we got to the restaurant I told Ryan I took the cutest picture of Maggie, and he needed to see it. When I showed him he didn't even read the caption at first! It took him a minute to realize what it said. Haha! Of course, he was beyond thrilled and a little in shock. Soon after the reality hit that we were going to be parents of TWO kids. How on earth are we going to manage that in a different country without our family and friends! We experienced all the emotions for elation, fear, thankful and terrified! We were nervous for another miscarriage so we tried to hold back from letting ourselves fully believe that we would be a family of four. Thankfully, we were able to have an early ultrasound at 5/6 weeks that showed a heartbeat. But we still wanted to see the scan at 12 weeks to really know that we were in the clear and we could fully believe that this was happening.

Tears of joy watching this little person kick and flip all around in my stomach. The technician even commented on how active this baby was! True that, because I swear I've been feeling this baby move since 8 weeks, and it just keeps getting stronger! Another, little reassurance from the Man above.

Our exact due date is January 22nd, 2015 which would make Maggie & this baby almost exactly 22 months apart. If anyone has any tips on transitioning to a family of 4, I am all ears!!